on the desktop?


Hi all-

I'm helping a friend think about a system for her office. The room is small (about 12' by 8'), and the speakers will sit on the desktop. She will mostly listen to cds (and also needs a cdp and amp for this system.) Other considerations: she has small children, so speakers that sound nice at low volumes would be ideal. Her music taste is varied, but she listens to lots of jazz and classical. I was thinking about Harbeth P3esr (maybe run with a Wyred4Sound mint or a Rega Brio), or the Kef Ls50 with the Arcam A19. I wonder if anyone has experience with those speakers on the desktop in a small room? Or other ideas for speakers for this situation? (Component advice is welcome too). The budget is 2-5k. with many thanks! Margot
mcanaday

Showing 2 responses by rockadanny

For my office I picked up a pair of Adam F7 (if too big for her she could go with Adam F5). These sound amazing and are very easy to use on the desk. Laptop playing music (CD, or music ripped to hard drive, or streaming off the net) out headphone jack (cables have 3.5 mm headphone jack which then splits out to two balanced connectors ($15) directly to active Adam F7 speakers ($898, I believe the F5s are way cheaper). That's it! No dedicated CD player. No preamp, power amp, or integrated amp. Just laptop and active (powered) speakers. Simple and very effective.

If she does not like the Adam speakers, there are many active and powered monitors from which to choose. I went to a local Guitar Center to audition many. And these came with 30-day money back guarantee. No brainer!
I turned volume up about half way on each speaker, then control overall volume via laptop. I will never not get active speakers for a desktop ever again. And these F7 do not require a sub for most music as they are rated down into the low 40s Hz. I doubt I'll add a sub, and I listen to jazz, blues, rock, etc.